Unhidden system tray icons disappearing after every reboot

Paced0340 · Oct 13, 2023

Since recently the system tray icons show a new and annoying behaviour for me. E.g. I'm using Throttlestop on my laptop, and that app's three system tray icons (the app, plus CPU and GPU temps) always get hidden after every reboot. And in Windows settings where you can unhide specific icons I got a ton of entries for Throttlestop, and I gotta find the right one to activate - only for it to get hidden again the next time I'm rebooting my system. Here is a screenshot:

I couldn't find much regarding this using Google, so maybe this is a rather exotic issue. Maybe any suggestions? Thanks!

Ghot · Oct 13, 2023

Hello @Paced0340 and welcome to ElevenForum.

I just read a brief tutorial... it says that if you check this box, it will keep Throttlestop on the taskbar...

Task Bar – Ticking this check box will prevent ThrottleStop from minimizing to the tray and instead will keep it in the Taskbar. Set this to your preference. Note that this also determines where TS will minimize to by clicking on VID or MHz.

Paced0340 · Oct 13, 2023

Ghot said:
Hello @Paced0340 and welcome to ElevenForum.

I just read a brief tutorial... it says that if you check this box, it will keep Throttlestop on the taskbar...

Hi there, and thanks for the welcome. : )

Cool find regarding that Task Bar checkmark, but that's not quite it. It keeps the Throttlestop app in the task bar, but my issue is the system tray icons for CPU and GPU temps remain hidden. And this is a new behaviour - like for 10 days or so. Never happened before. And I blame the newest Windows update (rightfully or not).

Could it somehow be connected to the fact this is not an "installed" app, but a program that resists in my "Tools" folder, and Throttlestop starts with every reboot via the task scheduler, with highest privileges, triggered by me logging in...?

Ghot · Oct 13, 2023

Paced0340 said:
my issue is the system tray icons for CPU and GPU temps

I dunno. My icons do what they're told.
They obey the toggles in the Settings.

I guess you might want to try just "moving" the icons.
Grab a hidden one and drag it to the un-hidden spot.

Sometimes that works when they aren't doing what you told them.
After being dragged to the right spot... they seem to stay in that spot.

Paced0340 · Oct 13, 2023

Ghot said:
I guess you might want to try just "moving" the icons.
Grab a hidden one and drag it to the un-hidden spot.

Sometimes that works when they aren't doing what you told them.
After being dragged to the right spot... they seem to stay in that spot.

For me, as of lately, the icons do not honour my setting after a reboot. For funsies look at this humongous list of the same entries again and again.

Ghot · Oct 13, 2023

Paced0340 said:
look at this humongous list

This is my entire list....

Paced0340 · Oct 13, 2023

Ghot said:
This is my entire list....

Yeah, I want that. Thank you in advance. ; )

johnlgalt · Oct 13, 2023

Check to see when the last major update to Windows 11 was installed on your system. It sounds like something that Windows Update installed might have broken the way ThrottleStop works, and it needs to be updated as well.

First off - are you using v9.6?
I also perused their forums over at TPU and don't see anyone mentioning any sort of issue like this, going back to late September: ThrottleStop

Finally, have you simply tried uninstalling it, rebooting, than installing it again?

unclewebb · Oct 18, 2023

The ever expanding list of notification area icons is a known issue for some users when running ThrottleStop in Windows 11.

ThrottleStop is not presently being actively developed. There are no immediate plans to fix this problem.

Paced0340 · Oct 23, 2023

Hey, thanks for the replies. : ) @unclewebb: great app, btw! Using it on my Dell XPS laptops for many years. Bummer it's not being developed anymore right now.

Thanks to this I was at least able to remove all those dozens and dozens of entries from the list, but of course now it's just being repopulated.

I still gotta find some way to keep these three icons unhidden. It's such a nuisance to always have to go into settings, and find and unhide the respective entries whenever I restart the system.

unclewebb · Oct 23, 2023

I tried testing this in Windows 11 21H2 22000.2538. This update was released on October 10, 2023. The ThrottleStop icons work correctly in this version.

I am not sure when the bug you found first started to happen. Did you first notice this when 22H2 was released or was it a recent update when the icons started multiplying like rats? Are you using the Task Scheduler to auto start ThrottleStop? Are you using any scripts to start or exit ThrottleStop?

Paced0340 said:
It's such a nuisance

I agree. I am not sure why Microsoft changed something that has worked fine for the last 15 or so years.

johnlgalt · Oct 23, 2023

Paced0340 said:
I still gotta find some way to keep these three icons unhidden. It's such a nuisance to always have to go into settings, and find and unhide the respective entries whenever I restart the system.

One thing to note - the System Tray is an interactive area, and you can drag and drop apps from hidden section <--> shown section. And you can also re-order them in both sections. If they are in Settings, then it should automatically change the value to on too, but it is a lot easier.

But, that does not fix your problem. Since it is essentially a portable application, have you tried renaming the ThrottleStop.ini file and starting over as if you just got it, especially if you've used it over the last couple of versions? It could be a setting from a previous version that might be causing the issue with the tray icons, though I doubt it.

Renaming it (and / or moving the file out of that directory) should be sufficient to try again and see if it acts up with a fresh set of configs.

Paced0340 · Oct 30, 2023

unclewebb said:
I tried testing this in Windows 11 21H2 22000.2538. This update was released on October 10, 2023. The ThrottleStop icons work correctly in this version.
I am not sure when the bug you found first started to happen. Did you first notice this when 22H2 was released or was it a recent update when the icons started multiplying like rats? Are you using the Task Scheduler to auto start ThrottleStop? Are you using any scripts to start or exit ThrottleStop?

Hi there. I can't be sure but in my head I do relate it to the 22H2 update. I think this issue came up first around that time. And yes, I'm using the Task Scheduler to autostart it on login. But I'm not using any scripts in addition.

Right now the systray icons seem to behave - the last few times when I restarted Windows my three ThrottleStop icons remained unhidden. So yeah, maybe the last Windows update(s) fixed this. I'll clean out the hide/unhide list again, and we'll see if it sticks.

johnlgalt said:
One thing to note - the System Tray is an interactive area, and you can drag and drop apps from hidden section <--> shown section. And you can also re-order them in both sections. If they are in Settings, then it should automatically change the value to on too, but it is a lot easier.

I like to think of myself as rather tech savvy, but I did not know one can do this, and I never tried. ; )) Thanks! This actually makes the issue almost irrelevant to me. But as I wrote above since the very latest Windows updates all seems good for now anyway.

johnlgalt said:
But, that does not fix your problem. Since it is essentially a portable application, have you tried renaming the ThrottleStop.ini file and starting over as if you just got it, especially if you've used it over the last couple of versions? It could be a setting from a previous version that might be causing the issue with the tray icons, though I doubt it.
Renaming it (and / or moving the file out of that directory) should be sufficient to try again and see if it acts up with a fresh set of configs.

Again thanks. I'll keep this in mind once the issue reappeares.

Really great help from you guys. : )

hdmi · Oct 31, 2023

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/other-system-tray-icons.19077/post-360305

GitHub - valinet/ExplorerPatcher: This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows

This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows - valinet/ExplorerPatcher

github.com

Paced0340 · Nov 5, 2023

A small update: the Windows update to 23H2 did not help with this issue.

But I had another thought. Around the same time this problem occured for the first time, I observed something else. Some of the apps in my "Tools" folder (which I use for software that wasn't installed, but just downloaded - mostly portable apps -, and where ThrottleStop is also located) suddenly had to be started with admin rights to be able to do file operations, like deleting files. It's pretty annoying because I tend to forget this, and so I have to restart the app. DB Browser for SQLite comes to mind.

Maybe the systray icon issue is related to this?

abactuon · Nov 5, 2023

I think I'm doing okay.
It's just like it says "Options".

ThrottleStop is run manually, not via autoloader.

hdmi · Nov 5, 2023

Paced0340 said:
A small update: the Windows update to 23H2 did not help with this issue.

But I had another thought. Around the same time this problem occured for the first time, I observed something else. Some of the apps in my "Tools" folder (which I use for software that wasn't installed, but just downloaded - mostly portable apps -, and where ThrottleStop is also located) suddenly had to be started with admin rights to be able to do file operations, like deleting files. It's pretty annoying because I tend to forget this, and so I have to restart the app. DB Browser for SQLite comes to mind.

Maybe the systray icon issue is related to this?

As far as ThrottleStop is concerned, it always has be be started as an administrator. That's why the only way to make it start automatically at Windows startup is by creating a task in Task Scheduler for it:

How to Start ThrottleStop at Windows Startup.

Detailed instructions on how to start ThrottleStop automatically with Windows by using the Task Scheduler. (Start ThrottleStop at Windows Startup).

www.repairwin.com

Paced0340 · Nov 6, 2023

hdmi said:
As far as ThrottleStop is concerned, it always has be be started as an administrator.

Thanks, and I am aware. ThrottleStop of course starts with admin rights. My thought process was that maybe (just maybe) the two issues are somehow related, and the new file access issue for some of those portable apps could help finding a fix for the hidden/unhidden icons problem. : )

Brink · Nov 6, 2023

Hello,

You could see if resetting the taskbar system tray notification icons like in the tutorial below may fix it.

Reset Notification Icons on Taskbar System Tray in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to reset the notification icons cache to fix any corrupted icons and remove any old icons from the taskbar system tray for your account in Windows 11. The system tray on the taskbar corner and taskbar corner overflow menu in Windows 11 shows the notification...

www.elevenforum.com

Paced0340 · Nov 6, 2023

Brink said:
You could see if resetting the taskbar system tray notification icons like in the tutorial below may fix it.

Reset Notification Icons on Taskbar System Tray in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to reset the notification icons cache to fix any corrupted icons and remove any old icons from the taskbar system tray for your account in Windows 11. The system tray on the taskbar corner and taskbar corner overflow menu in Windows 11 shows the notification...

www.elevenforum.com

Ah yes, I did try this. It helped getting rid of all those entries for ThrottleStop in the taskbar settings (litteraly dozens and dozens), but it doesn't help with the actual issue. Every time I reboot, the icons get hidden again, and the list gets bigger again. Oh well. Thanks anyway! : )